Tri-Rail 'fast start' ups ante

November 3, 2011

Tri-Rail officials have unveiled an expansion plan that would put commuter trains on Florida East Coast Railway tracks from Miami to Jupiter. More important, the proposal should usher a truce in the ongoing feud between the Florida Department of Transportation and the agency that operates the state's only commuter trains — the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority.

The key word is "should." Tensions between the two agencies have run high ever since FDOT officials met with FEC administrators to discuss the possibility of the railroad taking over Tri-Rail's operations. News that FDOT wants the Florida Legislature to change the composition of Tri-Rail's board to allow a state government takeover hasn't eased hard feelings, either — and understandably so.

Dubbed the Fast Start Plan, Tri-Rail's alternative proposal would use existing trains to provide service on both the CSX and the FEC tracks.

It would offer new passenger train service from Jupiter to downtown Miami. It would include a link between the FEC and the CSX tracks, making it possible to travel from Mangonia Park in Palm Beach County to downtown Miami without changing trains.

To pay for the expanded service, the plan calls for a combination of government appropriations, increased fares and assessments from the coastal cities that want stations near their downtowns.

Revenue from development rights could make those assessments more palatable, but that arrangement, along with other issues, must be worked out between the authority, the state, the FEC, the three counties and interested municipalities.

That's where brewing rivalries, competing interests, different visions and previous conflicts call for clarity, leadership and vision to develop a mass transit rail line to transport commuters, and provide an alternative to traffic congestion along South Florida's highways.

The idea of the authority expanding Tri-Rail service faces several challenges, beginning with Gov. Rick Scott and a transportation department that believes it can end its state subsidies to Tri-Rail if the operations are run by a private firm. The flaw in the executive branch's plan, however, is it ignores the fact that the authority has one of the nation's lowest operating contracts — largely because it currently contracts almost all of its operations to private firms.

Unfortunately, FDOT has not let the facts get in the way of its push.

Tri-Rail officials believe they can provide new service faster and cheaper than the state's murkier privatization proposal. The Fast Start Plan may only be a step to ultimate commuter rail service linking South Florida's coastal communities, but it's one the state should not dismiss out of hand.

Running passenger trains on the FEC tracks is still a ways off. So it matters which plan can best provide a truly regional rail service to help serve the transportation needs of the state's most populous region.